Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Monday, November 02, 2015

Why Did the Environmental Protection Agency Spend $1.4 Million on Guns?

...The second thing that hits you is where the rest of the money goes. The headline of an op-ed
by economist Stephen Moore in Investor’s Business Daily sums it up
well: “Why Does the EPA Need Guns, Ammo, and Armor to Protect the
Environment?”

And not just a few weapons. Open the Books found
that the agency has spent millions of dollars over the last decade on
guns, ammo, body armor, camouflage equipment, unmanned aircraft,
amphibious assault ships, radar and night-vision gear, and other
military-style weaponry and surveillance activities.

“We were
shocked ourselves to find these kinds of pervasive expenditures at an
agency that is supposed to be involved in clean air and clean water,”
said Open the Books founder Adam Andrzejewski. “Some of these weapons
are for full-scale military operations.”

Among the EPA’s purchases:

$1.4 million for “guns up to 300mm.”

$380,000 for “ammunition.”

$210,000 for “camouflage and other deceptive equipment.”

$208,000 for “radar and night-vision equipment.”

$31,000 for “armament training devices.”

The
list goes on. It’s filled with the kind of equipment you’d expect to be
purchased by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,
not an agency ostensibly designed to protect the environment.

But
as it turns out, armed, commando-style raids by the EPA are not unheard
of. One such raid occurred in 2013, in a small Alaskan town where armed
agents in full body armor reportedly confronted local miners accused of
polluting local waters. Perhaps the agency is gearing up for more
operations like that one?

If
so, the EPA wouldn’t be all that unique. According to the Justice
Department, there are now 40 federal agencies with more than 100,000
officers authorized to carry guns and make arrests. They include the
National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of
Land Management, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.